Lights Will Guide You Home
by flylikeadcriss
Summary: The story of how Kurt Hummel was on the edge, until Blaine Anderson brought him back.


**So here's the thing: I started this story a really long time ago, when Kurt was going to get into NYADA and be an actor, and Finn and Rachel were together and I didn't think it was time for them to break up. So just go with that, I guess.**

**There are references to suicidal thoughts, but no actual suicide or self-harm, so if that will trigger you please don't read it. **

**The title comes from the ever-relevant song Fix You by Coldplay, and I don't own Glee. **

* * *

Kurt looks over the edge of the railing and lets his eyes wander, up from the busy streets to the windows of the tall buildings to the sky, where the buildings end. He scans the sky, scans the street, and tries to figure out exactly what he's looking for.

A sign? A warning? He doubts it; the city—hell, the world—seem to be going the opposite direction, encouraging Kurt, telling him repeatedly that every thought he's having is correct, impressing it upon him everywhere he turns.

He doesn't see anything. Just the same thing—bright lights, speeding cars, and window after window, each with a corresponding home. He wonders who lives behind those windows. Families? Roommates? Happy people, sad people, people who came to New York to be some variety of starving artist, people who have lived here all their lives, people with girlfriends, boyfriends, friends?

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, holding to the railing so tightly that his knuckles are turning white.

Then his eyes jolt open at the sound of somebody approaching him from behind.

Kurt turns quickly to see a boy—a man, really, he looks to be about Kurt's age—staring at him.

"Sorry," he says. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything. I didn't know anyone else was up here."

Kurt tries to speak but fails as his voice cracks on the first word. He clears his throat and tries again.

"It's okay," he says cautiously.

The man smiles at him and comes over to stand next to him.

"I come up here a lot," he says. "I have to, actually. There's no cell service downstairs so I have to come up whenever I need to call anyone. But I've never seen you up here." he says, looking over at Kurt questioningly.

"I've never been up here before," Kurt admits quietly, trying to ignore his sudden jealousy that the man actually has people to call. "Do you live here?"

"No," the man says. "Not too far from here, though. No, my sister lives here with her kids. I just come over a lot to help her out. And to get free food." He turns his head to grin at Kurt. "She's an awesome cook."

All Kurt can think is that he really wants this guy to go away, to leave him so he can just get on with it, but for some reason he finds himself asking, "What does she cook?"

"She's big on desserts," the man says thoughtfully. "She's making a soufflé or something right now, and she kicked me out because I was bugging her while she was working."

"I used to make stuff like that," Kurt says without thinking, then bites his tongue and tells himself that he needs to shut up and end the conversation.

The man looks straight at him for a few seconds, in a way that makes Kurt feel almost uncomfortable because even though he's just looking at his eyes Kurt's afraid that he'll be able to tell, to somehow look into his mind and see everything inside.

"I'm Blaine," he says, holding out a hand. Kurt releases his grip on the railing, realizing suddenly that he's been holding it tightly this whole time.

"Kurt," he says, taking Blaine's hand. He makes himself let go after a second but part of him desperately wants to keep holding on, to have someone hold on to him, even this complete stranger.

"So, Kurt," Blaine says. "What brings you up here?"

Kurt breathes in quickly and thinks, trying to find something, and finally the most he can come up with is, "It's too quiet in my apartment, I guess. It makes it hard to think." Which isn't even really a lie, the silent apartment is a big part of the reason he's up here.

Blaine nods. "It's nice up here. Under the stars and all that."

Kurt makes an odd half-laughing noise. "You can't even see the stars."

"I know," Blaine admits. "But even if you can't see them, you know they're there, right? And they're still beautiful. They're just hidden."

Somehow, the thought manages to make Kurt smile.

"Are you hungry?" Blaine suddenly asks.

Kurt looks at him in surprise. "I don't know. I guess I haven't eaten in a while."

"You should come down and eat with us," Blaine suggests. "I think she'd love to have someone there who would understand whatever she did to make that soufflé thing. And it's not quiet at all down there, if that's what you're trying to avoid."

Kurt raises his eyebrows.

"Do you always invite random strangers back to your sister's apartment?" he asks.

"No," Blaine says seriously, stepping away from the railing and holding out a hand. "You're just special."

Kurt half-laughs again and looks back at the railing, down at the ground so far below. Then he turns and takes Blaine's hand.

"Don't you have to call someone?" Kurt asks, suddenly remembering.

"It's not that important," Blaine assures him. "Come on."

So Kurt follows Blaine back to the elevator, reluctantly letting go of his hand as they get on.

* * *

Blaine wasn't kidding—his sister's apartment is loud. Kurt's not sure how she even managed to make soufflé with her sons running around and yelling and stomping.

His sister, Mimi (Marion, actually, but she hates that name) is also loud, in a way. She's exuberant, so happy to have another guest because she has made _way _too much food, and any friend of Blaine's is welcome here, and she's so happy to hear that Kurt likes (liked) to cook because he'll definitely appreciate all the time she spent cooking dinner.

She works at a tiny restaurant that Kurt's never heard of but is apparently not too far away, but she's always wanted to open up a bakery. Her boys drive her crazy sometimes but she loves them.

Kurt doesn't know if he's good with kids. He's never had much experience with them, or anything. But the kids—Frankie, Jack, and Danny, aged six, eight, and nine, respectively—love their uncle and if their uncle thinks somebody is cool then they'll believe him. They spend dinner alternating between refusing to eat their spinach and asking Kurt question after question, ending up on topics ranging from whether he can do a backflip to whether he thinks Blaine is awesome.

Kurt answers yes to those two, and by the end of dinner he's laughing just as much as Mimi, and Mimi laughs a lot. He catches Blaine's eye at one point and Blaine grins and asks him if he prefers the silence yet. Kurt answers completely honestly that he really doesn't.

* * *

Blaine walks Kurt up to his apartment (technically, he rides with him in the elevator and gallantly holds the door open with his foot for Kurt to get on). He gets off the elevator, too, and stops with Kurt at his door.

"Here," he says, handing Kurt a pink post-it note with a number and a smiley face written on it. "Call me if it gets too quiet, okay?"

"Yeah," Kurt says, taking the note. "Okay."

"Thanks for coming," Blaine says, smiling as Kurt opens his door. "I know they're kind of crazy."

"They're great," Kurt disagrees. "Thank you."

Blaine nods and waits as Kurt goes inside.

Kurt sits on his couch for a while, staring at the pink post-it, folding it and refolding it over and over in his hands. He looks up and notices the envelope that's still on the coffee table where he left it just hours ago. He stands, picks it up, and holds the two in his hands—the envelope and the post-it.

He bites his lip, walks over to the kitchen trashcan, and throws the envelope away.

* * *

The next day, Mimi comes up to Kurt's apartment bearing cookies and a crayon drawing by Frankie of him and Blaine standing next to each other and smiling. Kurt laughs when he sees how much shorter crayon-Blaine is than crayon-Kurt.

Mimi doesn't want to invite herself in, but she'd love to stay for Kurt's opinion of the cookies—she's trying a new recipe.

Kurt lets her in and they sit down on the couch and eat cookies.

"The boys are at school," she explains. "And I have the dinner shift tonight."

She spends way too much of her free time trying to perfect her recipes, she says. The bakery thing is kind of a stupid pipe dream, but hey, at least there are always cookies in the house.

"That's more than what came out of my stupid pipe dream," Kurt says, smiling wryly.

Mimi looks at him like she wants him to explain, but all he can tell her is that he is one of many failed actors in New York City.

"So what do you do?" she asks. He tells her that he quit his job at Starbucks a week ago and offers no further explanation.

"If you need a job, you can totally come work with me," Mimi says, suddenly excited. "Seriously. One of our waiters just got fired because his ex came in to eat and he put a spider in her food to get back at her and she threatened to sue—" She pauses. "Sorry. That's a dramatic story for another time. But I'm friends with the owner and she'd love to have you there, because you seem like you'd actually be competent and sane. And it'd be so cool to work with you."

She looks at Kurt eagerly, and Kurt really doesn't have any money and even though the back of his mind is asking him if he's going to do it or what, why is he dragging this out, he agrees to meet the owner.

* * *

Mimi drags him to work with her that afternoon, and she was right—the restaurant is tiny. It's tiny enough that suddenly losing one waiter puts them in a desperate enough state that the owner— Tanya, Kurt learns— hires him as soon as Mimi promises them that he's cool and has the ability to carry a tray and write on a pad.

An hour later, Kurt has a uniform, a job, and new friends in pretty much everyone at the restaurant. They gossip about the waiter who got fired and his girlfriend and tell Kurt all about the whole incident, right up to the point where the health department came seriously close to shutting them down.

Kurt takes orders and serves customers, and it turns out that a lot of them are regulars that come in all the time because the restaurant allegedly has the best cheeseburgers in New York.

* * *

He's exhausted by the end of the day, but somehow it feels great. Serving these people is a lot more satisfying than serving the people who dash in and out of Starbucks, only looking up from their cell phones to order or yell at him because their drink is too hot, too cold, too sweet, too bitter, and a huge range of other complaints.

He and Mimi are the last two at the restaurant, because when she gets the dinner shift it's her job to close up. He helps her clean up and put the chairs up on the tables and is just wondering when they're supposed to leave when Blaine shows up, three little kids in tow.

Mimi lets them in and Blaine looks at Kurt with raised eyebrows. "Have you always worked here? I think I would have noticed you."

Kurt blushes because he thinks that Blaine just might be flirting with him, and Mimi hits Blaine on the shoulder and leads them all back to the kitchen.

"Is there pie today?" Jack asks, looking hopeful.

"We have one piece of cherry and one piece of apple," Mimi says, pulling out a small package from the refrigerator. "But we also have cheeseburgers."

The three kids cheer and even Blaine joins in a little as Mimi unwraps the package and turns the grill back on.

Kurt's just about to question the legality of this when Blaine looks over at him and grins. "Don't worry, Tanya knows. It's just the extra stuff that they'd have to throw away at the end of the day."

"It's in my contract," Mimi assures him as she divides the meat into six small burgers and tosses them onto the grill. "Just as long as I realize that I'm not covered by any insurance after closing time and if I burn the restaurant down it's all on me."

"It's awesome," Danny says, eating a pickle from a jar that Mimi has placed on the counter. "We don't get burgers that much, though."

Mimi flips the burgers and pulls out some cheese.

"Kurt, do you like cheese on your burgers?" she asks.

"Oh, you don't have to—" Kurt says, but she waves her hand.

"No, now that you work here you're kind of obligated to eat with us," Mimi interrupts.

"And you have to eat it all or you have to go to bed early," Danny pipes up, shaking his head to express his irritation at this rule.

Kurt laughs at that and admits that yes, he does like cheese.

They each get half a burger and a sixth of each piece of pie, and as much soda as they want because the actual soda doesn't cost anything and Mimi will wash the cups before they go. Well, Kurt and Blaine get as much soda as they want. The three boys are limited to one cup each.

"We got to see Uncle Blaine play today," Jack says through a mouthful of burger.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Mimi sighs. Then she turns to Blaine and raises an eyebrow.

"I didn't take them to a bar or anything," Blaine assures her. "I was playing at the kid's library this afternoon. They even got books."

"I got a book about this town getting attacked by a giant slime monster," Frankie says, grinning. Blaine gives him a look.

"Hey, Frankie," he says. "Remember the part where I let you get the book if you promised to keep it a secret?"

"Nope," Frankie says cheerfully.

Kurt sits back and eats his pie and just watches them, unable to keep from smiling. He's never really had the family dynamic of three little kids and their mother and a cool uncle, but he hasn't had any other family dynamic either for a while. It's kind of nice even being able to watch it.

"Kurt, you said you'd teach us how to do backflips, right?" Jack asks.

"If it's okay with your mom," Kurt says. "But it's probably not a good idea to do it in a room filled with metal equipment."

"Just don't break your necks," Mimi says, and the three boys promise that no, they won't break their necks.

Blaine glances at the clock hanging above the stove.

"We need to get the kids home," he says. "It's almost bedtime."

The three boys groan and berate Blaine for reminding their mom about their bedtime, but follow him to where Blaine and Mimi's cars are both parked. Mimi takes the boys and Blaine offers to drive Kurt.

"She recruited you pretty quickly," Blaine comments as they pull out of the lot. "I mean, she was definitely going to drag you in eventually, but I have to admire her efficiency."

"Does she do this a lot, then?" Kurt asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," Blaine replies. "You're just special."

Kurt blushes again and looks ahead to see Mimi's car right in front of them, and he can just barely make out the silhouette of the three boys fighting in the backseat.

He really wants to ask but knows that it would be rude to do so. Somehow, though, Blaine knows exactly what he's thinking.

"She got married when she was nineteen," he explains quietly. "He was this artist and they both wanted to come to New York, and it was kind of stupid but everyone does stupid stuff, right?"

"What happened?" Kurt asks. Blaine shrugged.

"When she got married? My parents were livid. When she told them she was engaged, they told her that if she went through with it, she was out, or disowned, or whatever you call it. They said that he would leave her in five years and she shouldn't come crawling back to them for money." Blaine sounds just a little bit bitter. "And I guess they were right about that. He left while she was pregnant with Frankie."

He turns to look at Kurt.

"And they didn't forgive her. So she and the kids are kind of dead to them, and I'm pretty close."

"Why?" Kurt asks.

"Because I took her side, I guess," Blaine says, shrugging. "I was already kind of on the outs since I came out, and when I refused to stop talking to her it was just the last straw. And it was stupid, but she's my sister, you know? She was happy, and I wasn't going to cut her off too even if it turned out to be a huge mistake."

"Yeah," Kurt says. "I mean, I guess I only have my stepbrother and I haven't really talked to him in a while. It's really nice that you two are like that."

"What happened with your stepbrother?" Blaine asks as they pull into the garage of Kurt's building. Kurt looks away from him as he replies.

"We…." Kurt struggles for a moment before settling for saying, "We had a falling out a few years ago. It's a long story."

Blaine hums in acknowledgment but doesn't press the issue as they get out of the car.

"Okay," he says to the boys as they all get on the elevator. "I'm going to walk Kurt up to his door. You three go to bed, okay? Don't give your mom any trouble." The boys roll their eyes but agree, and then attack Blaine with hugs.

"Hey, Kurt," Mimi says, looking at her phone. "Can you be ready at ten tomorrow? Because I have the lunch shift and it would be super convenient if you could do that too."

"Sure," Kurt agrees. Mimi grins and bids him good night as she and the three boys get off the elevator. Blaine and Kurt spend the rest of the ride up in silence, but it's not particularly uncomfortable. Kurt has become a lot quieter in general in the past few years, and he's used to silence anyway.

* * *

And all of the sudden, Kurt's life is filled with activity—work, eating at the restaurant on days they have the dinner shift and helping Mimi make dinner on days they don't, helping Blaine watch the kids at the museum or the park or the zoo, going out at night to watch Blaine sing—and Kurt loves it. He can't remember the last time his life was actually busy.

* * *

Blaine kisses Kurt for the first time on the same night that the boys all hug Blaine when they have to go to bed, and then, for the first time, they turn around and hug Kurt too.

Kurt hugs back because if there's one thing he's learned from knowing Blaine it's that he actually is okay with kids—at least these kids, because they drive him crazy just as much as they do Blaine but he's growing as attached to them as Blaine is.

The kids all go to bed, and Mimi pours Blaine, Kurt, and herself each a glass of red wine, and they sit on the couch and watch Jeopardy.

There's a category for musical theater, and Kurt gets every one of them right, even the Daily Double.

The answer to the Daily Double is "Who is Barbra Streisand?" and as Kurt says the answer, he can't help but picture Rachel and smile because if she was here with him, they would probably have both screamed the answers as quickly as possible before the other could.

"You know a lot about that," Blaine comments, glancing over at Kurt questioningly.

"I used to love Broadway," Kurt explains. "I was a musical theater major in college, that's kind of why I came to New York."

Blaine nods and is nice enough to let the obvious questions go unasked, for which Kurt is extremely grateful.

When Jeopardy ends, and Mimi and Blaine have declared Kurt the winner out of the three of them even though none of them was really counting, Mimi stands up and yawns.

"Bedtime for me, too," she says, and they both wish her goodnight as she retires to her room.

Wheel of Fortune comes on next, and Kurt learns that he's still as good at it as when he used to watch it with Carol, all those years ago in Lima, and they actually would keep score but end up in a tie anyway.

Blaine stares at Kurt when Kurt guesses "Gummy Bears" with the category "Food and Drink", two M's, and an S.

"I should just give up now," he sighs. "You're definitely getting that trip to Fiji, I think."

Kurt laughs and shakes his head. "I've just watched about a thousand episodes of this. You get pretty good at it after a while."

"I think you're just awesome in general," Blaine replies, looking over at Kurt with a grin.

"I don't know about that," Kurt says, shaking his head and watching as somebody onscreen finally comes up with the answer.

"No, really," Blaine says seriously. Kurt looks back over at him, realizing suddenly that they're actually really close together despite the fact that the couch is relatively big, and Blaine's hand is just centimeters from his own.

And then his hand is gone, because it's coming up to cup Kurt's cheek carefully. Kurt takes a quick breath but doesn't move away as Blaine leans closer and kisses him.

And Kurt closes his eyes, finds Blaine's other hand with his own, and kisses him back.

* * *

The next day, Kurt goes with Blaine to take the boys to school because Blaine wants to take him out to breakfast and show him this place that has the best omelets ever. They meet in front of Mimi's door so Mimi can say goodbye to them.

They're all standing together in the hallway, just about to go, when Danny says, "Hey, mom."

"Yes?" Mimi replies as they all begin to walk towards the garage.

And Danny whispers as loudly as humanely possible, "Uncle Blaine kissed Kurt last night."

Kurt immediately turns bright red while Blaine glares at Danny.

"What were you even doing up then?" Blaine asks. Danny grins innocently.

"I was getting water."

"Sure."

"Danny, don't spy on your uncle," Mimi sighs as they reach their cars.

Kurt, Blaine, and the boys all get in Blaine's car.

"You know, I was going to take you guys to get donut holes," Blaine says, looking at Danny meaningfully in the mirror. "But we just might have to skip that."

Frankie and Jack both turn to glare at Danny, who at least has the decency to look guilty. Then Jack, looking inspired, says, "I'll bet if you buy us donut holes Kurt will kiss you again." He looks over at Kurt and makes puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

"Blaine," Kurt says obediently. "I'm not going to kiss you again until you buy them donut holes."

Blaine sighs. "I guess I'm going to have to, then," he says. "Don't tell your mom."

As the three boys swear up and down that they won't tell on Blaine, Blaine looks over at Kurt with a grin. "Traitor," he accuses mockingly.

"If I'm going to kiss you anyway, it might as well be for a good cause," Kurt retorts, but he's smiling too.

The go to Dunkin' Donuts and Blaine buys a box of Munchkins, and then makes a show out of getting Kurt to kiss him for them, to the amusement of the backseat. He hands Kurt the box and asks him to give each of the kids two as they drive away.

Kurt doles out the donut holes to three disappointed-looking boys.

"Can't we have three?" Frankie asks, pouting.

"No," Blaine says.

Danny's eyes light up. "If Kurt kisses you again, can we have three?"

"I sense a trend here," Kurt says, raising his eyebrows. "I think they only want me for my ability to get you to give them stuff."

"If it makes you feel any better, I think they only want me for my ability to give them stuff once you get me to," Blaine laughs. "And no, Danny, because that would be three extra, so that's actually three kisses."

"He'll totally do it," Jack promises, looking at Kurt pleadingly.

Kurt rolls his eyes but turns and quickly kisses Blaine three more times in succession, then gives each one of the boys another donut hole.

"And that's it," Blaine says, raising his eyebrows at the boys in the rearview mirror."

"Not even if—"

"No."

They arrive at the boys' school a few minutes later, and the three jump out of the car, calling goodbyes to both Kurt and Blaine as they run out into a courtyard crowded with children.

Blaine looks over at Kurt. "I'd offer you one, but you're not allowed to eat anything until we get to the restaurant because I'm not letting you ruin you appetite."

Kurt laughs and accepts this. Blaine looks out the window past Kurt and catches the eyes of a young woman that Kurt assumes to be one of the teachers at the school, and then waves her over, rolling the window down.

"Hey," he says as she reaches the window. "Kurt, this is Anna."

"Hi," Kurt says, leaning forward to be seen behind Blaine and waving.

"She's the music teacher here," Blaine explains. "Anna, this is Kurt."

"Hello, Kurt," Anna says, smiling and then looking meaningfully at Blaine.

"We got the boys donut holes—" Blaine begins.

"Blaine! Do you have any idea what they do when you give them sugar?" Anna says in despair.

"I brought you the extra to put in the teachers' lounge or something," Blaine finishes, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, I guess that kind of makes up for it," Anna says grudgingly, taking the box from Blaine. "You should come in and sing again sometime. The kids miss you."

"I'll try," Blaine agrees, glancing at the clock. "But we need to get going if we're going to get a table."

"Okay," Anna agrees. "Thanks for the donuts, the other teachers will be eternally grateful." She leans down into the window so she can see Kurt. "Bye, Kurt. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," Kurt says. Then he turns to look at Blaine as they drive away.

"What?" Blaine asks, looking amused.

"Do you just have friends at every single place in the city?" Kurt asks. "Or do you just make friends everywhere you go?"

Blaine laughs. "Closer to the second one," he admits. "But a lot of them were friends with Mimi first." He looks over at Kurt and grins. "See, you were my friend first, though. So I've got that."

"That you do," Kurt agrees.

"Anna actually helps me out a lot—she got me the job singing to the kids at the library, and a few others sometimes." He looks over at Kurt again. "What?"

"Nothing," Kurt says, shaking his head incredulously.

* * *

After breakfast, they get back in the car together and Blaine leans over the seat to kiss Kurt.

"You know," Blaine says slowly when he pulls away. "You know you can tell me anything, right? I know you might not want to but if you ever want to talk about, you know. Anything."

"Yeah," Kurt says after a moment. "Yeah, I know."

Blaine nods and smiles before turning to buckle his seatbelt and pull out of their parking space.

Kurt stares out the window, and it's comfortably silent for a minute. Then, he speaks.

"My dad died right after I graduated college," he says. Blaine looks over at him, then slowly shifts gears and pulls the car over.

"Yeah?" he says, and Kurt nods.

"Like, he'd always had a bad heart, but that's not…" Kurt shakes his head and looks over at Blaine. "He and my stepmom, they were in an accident, and neither of them made it."

Blaine reaches over and takes Kurt's hand, and Kurt smiles gratefully before continuing.

"And my brother and I…. it was so sudden and scary and so hard on both of us, you know?"

"Yeah."

Kurt can feel himself start to choke up, but he forces himself to continue. "And we should have been there for each other. But we ended up in this huge fight instead."

Kurt can feel the intensity of Blaine's gaze, burning through him, as he blinks back tears.

"I just…I said a lot of things I didn't mean. To my brother. To everyone. I…I was just so _angry_ at everything, Blaine. And I just wanted them all to leave me alone." He pauses and sniffs, wiping his eye with his sleeve as he stares out the window. "And when I finally got that, when they finally gave up…. It was terrible."

As Kurt breaks off and just starts to cry, Blaine seems to sense that he can't talk anymore and leans over the seat to pull Kurt into his arms.

"I just messed everything up," Kurt continues. "And I lost everything, and everyone, and now I'm just, I'm totally broken—"

"You," Blaine interrupts firmly, cutting himself off and shaking his head before continuing. "You are not broken. You are…you're too strong to break. You might be hurt, but you're not broken." He looks at Kurt seriously. "You'll never be broken. I promise."  
Kurt sniffs and lets Blaine hold him for a minute, then pulls away with a sigh.

"God, you are the most wonderful person I have ever met," he says, chuckling and wiping his eyes.

"Maybe you should try talking to him," Blaine says quietly, and Kurt shakes his head.

"He doesn't want to talk to me," he says. "I wouldn't want to talk to me."

"It couldn't hurt," Blaine suggests.

"It could hurt a lot," Kurt replies with a short, watery laugh.

"Maybe," Blaine relents. "Maybe not. And even if it hurts, you'll know you tried."

* * *

Winter arrives. The boys, to all of their horrors, are on a two week winter break, Mimi wears jingle bell earrings, and Kurt and Blaine go Christmas shopping.

"Jack likes Power Rangers," Blaine recites as they walk through the mall. "Frankie likes art stuff, and Danny loves Superman but Spiderman is also acceptable." He turns to Kurt. "Also, Mimi likes clothes and jewelry but I've failed miserably in the past with picking them out, so you're going to have to help with that."

"Of course," Kurt promises. "And what do you want for Christmas?"

"All I want for Christmas is you," Blaine says with a mock-sappy grin. Kurt rolls his eyes.

"Seriously."

"Seriously," Blaine repeats, stopping them as they reach the giant Christmas tree in the middle of the mall. "Believe me, you're plenty."

"Well aren't you sweet," Kurt says with a smile.

Blaine just grins and tilts his head up to kiss him, then breaks away with a smile.

"I love you," he suddenly whispers. Kurt's breath catches as he looks into those impossibly honest eyes and sees nothing but love in them.

"I love you too," he says breathlessly, and Blaine surges up to kiss him again.

But they're in the middle of a shopping mall, so they do break apart a moment later with twin mega-watt smiles on their faces.

"Come on," Kurt says, taking Blaine's hand. "Let's go find a present for your sister."

* * *

Kurt's helping Mimi clean up after the first hour of the boys tearing into their presents, stuffing a trash bag full of wrapping paper and dodging Nerf bullets, while Blaine makes the pancakes, which are pretty much the only thing he's good at cooking.

And it's fun, and everyone's happy and Mimi loves her new sweater but something's wrong. Because every time Kurt looks up to where Blaine is standing, Blaine's half-focused on his phone with an expression of hidden anxiety.

"Is Blaine…okay?" Kurt asks Mimi quietly, or as quietly as he can while still being heard over the boys' yelling.

Mimi hesitates, then sighs heavily.

"Yeah," she says, grimacing and tying off her trash bag. "It's just…. Every Christmas he sends mom and dad a card and every Christmas he spends the whole day hoping they'll call us. And they never do."

"Oh," is all Kurt can think to say, watching Blaine glance at his phone for the umpteenth time.

"It'll be okay. He'll give up by dinnertime," Mimi says resignedly.

Kurt just looks at Blaine and remembers what he said to Kurt, that day Kurt told him everything.

_Even if it hurts, you'll know you tried._

* * *

On Blaine's birthday, Mimi drops the boys off at the restaurant at closing time with Kurt and the rest of the employees and friends from schools and libraries and bars, promising to delay Blaine for at least an hour and a half.

And they get to work—Kurt gives in and just lets the kids go to town on the cake, figuring that Mimi baked it so it'll taste amazing no matter how messily they decorate it.

They set up a table for food and hang up a "Happy Birthday" banner and pass around a card for everyone to sign, and maybe Kurt should be surprised that all these people are so devoted to giving Blaine a great birthday but he's really not. Because to know Blaine is to love Blaine, as Kurt is very quickly figuring out.

* * *

Eventually, Mimi takes the boys home and the other guests leave, each hugging Blaine goodbye and wishing him a happy birthday and, in the case of the guests that also work at the restaurant, a hand cleaning up.

Soon enough Kurt and Blaine are the only ones left at the restaurant.

"So," Kurt says as they put up the last of the chairs. "Were you surprised?"

"Very," Blaine says, laughing. "Thank you."

"It was Mimi's idea," Kurt admits, putting up the last chair as Blaine walks towards him.

"Yeah, but thank you," Blaine says, catching Kurt's hand in his, smiling softly down at where their hands are joined. "For being here. Being you."

"I love you," Kurt says in reply, meeting Blaine's gaze and squeezing his hand.

"And I love you," Blaine says, leaning up to kiss Kurt.

After that they're silent, because they're kissing and neither one of them wants to stop to talk as the kiss deepens and Blaine presses Kurt up against the back of a booth.

Then, they break apart, a whole new level of tension in the air as they look at each other steadily.

Blaine breaks the silence first.

"Do you want to," he says, voice breaking slightly before he starts again. "Do you want to go back to my place for a while?"

Kurt nods. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I do."

* * *

Within a few seconds of entering Blaine's apartment, Kurt and Blaine are kissing, softly but intensely, unable to really stop.

Blaine struggles to not let go of Kurt even as he leads them back through the living room and into his bedroom. When they finally get there, they tumble onto the bed together and laugh for just a second before Blaine rolls over and situates them in the middle, holding his own body over Kurt's, their lips just a few centimeters apart.

Then Kurt brings his hand up between them to get a grip on Blaine's shirt and pulls him down, kissing him again.

* * *

Kurt's always hated the term "make love." He's always thought that people were just afraid to say the word "sex" and "make love" was just a substitute they came up with so they didn't have to. He's always thought that if you're going to have sex, you might as well call it what it is.

But what he learns is that he was wrong. Because that night, he and Blaine don't have sex, or fuck, or whatever—they make love, and it doesn't sound nearly as stupid now.

Because that's what it is—It's slow, but urgent, it's Blaine whispering over and over to Kurt that he's so beautiful, he's so perfect. It's Kurt actually believing him when he says those things, and thinking that it's so much better than hearing a stranger whisper that he's so hot. It's _loving_.

It's loving as Blaine touches him and kisses him and talks to him in ways that nobody else ever has—Kurt's done pretty much all of this before with far too many people that he'd barely met beforehand, but it feels so different like this, with Blaine kissing him slowly even in the heat of the moment, smiling softly down at him and brushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes to kiss his forehead, and telling Kurt things that he never thought anybody would ever tell him.

* * *

Afterwards, Blaine holds Kurt in his arms, stroking gently through his hair and occasionally pressing tiny kisses to the back of his neck.

"Stay with me?" Blaine requests quietly. Kurt nods and turns around, careful to not dislodge Blaine's arms, and rests his head on Blaine's chest.

"Blaine," he whispers after a minute.

"Yeah," Blaine replies, tracing some pattern on Kurt's bare shoulder with his fingers.

"You saved my life," Kurt confesses softly.

Blaine's fingers stop moving just so he can wrap both of his arms around Kurt and hug him more tightly.

"I know," he says. Kurt's eyes open and find Blaine's in the half-darkness.

They're silent as they look at each other, and Kurt cries a few silent tears but he doesn't look away, and neither does Blaine as he wipes them away for him.

They don't say anything else before they drift off to sleep together.

* * *

Kurt wakes up the next morning to an empty bed and the smell of coffee.

Upon further investigation outside the bedroom, he finds Blaine in the kitchen, pouring two cups of coffee.

"Hey," Blaine says with a smile when he notices Kurt. "I made you coffee."

"Thanks," Kurt says gratefully, accepting the cup from Blaine.

"No problem." Blaine looks at him thoughtfully. "Are you going to get mad if I kiss you before we brush our teeth?"

Kurt considers this for a second, then shrugs. "It's worth it," he decides, and Blaine laughs before stepping forward and kissing Kurt gently.

"I'm so happy right now," Kurt breathes out, almost by accident, when they separate.

"Me too," Blaine agrees.

One glance at the clock, however, almost breaks Kurt out of his in-love-birthday-sex afterglow.

"Oh, god," he says, setting his cup down. "I'm supposed to be at the restaurant in twenty minutes."

Blaine hums thoughtfully, then says, "I'll call Mimi. She'll get you out of it."

"But, what are we going to tell her?" Kurt protests as Blaine finds his phone.

"Do you really thinks she's going to want to ask too many questions?" Blaine laughs, dialing the phone.

Kurt thinks about this for a second.

"No," he says decidedly, sighing happily and sitting down on the couch to drink his coffee. "No, I don't think she is."

"Exactly," Blaine agrees, winking at him.

* * *

They're out one night, at some gay bar where Blaine sometimes sings, but right now they're just there to dance and be together and Kurt has never been to one of these places without the intention of meeting somebody, so its new and actually pretty fun.

They've just finished dancing to some Katy Perry song Blaine requested that's practically an oldie at this point and they're laughing as they go up to the bar for more drinks.

And that's when Kurt sees the man across the bar.

He struggles to remember his name. Jared? Gerald? Something like that, if he's remembering a single night from what feels like a long time ago correctly.

And then he realizes that he can't let the man (he's maybe eighty percent sure his name is Gary) see him, because if he did he might talk to him and if he did that Blaine might see and oh god, this could be bad.

So when Blaine asks Kurt what's wrong, Kurt flashes what he hopes is a convincingly tired smile and says, loudly to be heard over the music, "I'm getting really tired, can we just go?"

Blaine studies his face for a minute with those searching eyes, then nods.

* * *

There's silence as they approach Kurt's building, and when they get to the door Kurt waits a minute for Blaine to break it.

"Do you want to come up?" he asks, trying to push back his feelings of worry.

"Sure," Blaine says quickly, nodding. "Okay."

But it's still silent as they ride the elevator up to Kurt's apartment, and its awkward as they enter Kurt's apartment and Blaine sits down on the couch with a strange expression.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asks, despite the sinking feeling that he knows exactly what's wrong.

"Nothing," Blaine says.

"Something's wrong."

Blaine sighs and runs a hand through his hair and finally asks, not looking at Kurt, "Where'd you know that guy from?"

"What guy?" Kurt asks, even though he knows exactly what guy.

"The one that you saw right before you made us leave," Blaine replies dully.

"Oh," is all Kurt can think of to say.

"Where'd you know him from?"

It's awkward and silent again until Kurt sighs and sits down next to Blaine.

"What do you want me to say?" he asks, looking down at his hands. "You want me to say it?"

"No," Blaine says quietly.

"So what do you want me to say?"

"I don't know."

Kurt stares at Blaine, who stares at the floor, and tries not to panic because oh god he might lose Blaine over this. And then Blaine speaks and asks a question Kurt most definitely does not want to answer.

"How many times did you…do that?"

And again, Kurt knows exactly what Blaine's thinking and his stomach drops at the thought of the answer.

"I don't know," he says honestly, his voice fragile. "A lot."

Blaine winces slightly, and Kurt reaches out to touch his hand. To his relief, Blaine doesn't pull away.

"Are you mad at me?" Kurt asks carefully.

"No," Blaine says after a minute. "No, it'd be stupid to get mad at you. I just…wish it wasn't true."

"Me too," Kurt agrees, mostly to himself. After another minute of silence and steeling himself, he says slowly, in a carefully controlled voice, "Look, I can't do anything about it, okay? This is… This is what you get, you know? And if you want to leave, that's…."

He tries to say the word 'okay' but he can't, because he's not going to be okay if Blaine leaves. Not by a long shot.

But he doesn't have to, because the look on Blaine's face silences him anyway.

"I'm not going to leave you," Blaine says firmly, finally looking up at Kurt. "Ever."

"Really?" Kurt whispers.

"Really," Blaine agrees, pulling Kurt in and hugging him tightly. And as Kurt hugs him back in relief, Blaine whispers in his ear, "And I love what I got. I love you so much."

* * *

Kurt's at Mimi's apartment, helping her make dinner and watching Blaine attempt to play Monopoly with the three boys.

"Frankie, you can't just break out of jail," Blaine is saying patiently as Jack and Danny fight over a twenty-dollar bill.

"You didn't call rent!" Jack snaps.

"Yes I did!" Danny retorts.

"You did not! It only counts if you call it before the next person rolls, right, Uncle Blaine?"

Kurt watches with a soft smile as Blaine calms them down and somehow brings them to a truce.

"He's lucky to have you, you know," Mimi says quietly from where she's standing next to Kurt, tossing a salad. Kurt half-laughs as he turns to face her.

"I'm pretty sure I'm more lucky to have him, actually," he replies honestly.

"It's just…." Mimi sighs and shakes her head. "He hasn't done so well with this stuff in the past."

"Really?" Kurt asks.

"Not many guys can get over the fact that he already half-takes care of three kids," Mimi explains, smiling wryly.

"Oh," Kurt says, looking back up at Blaine, who's taken pity on Frankie and given him his get-out-of-jail-free card.

"And I wish I didn't have to depend on him so much," Mimi says, sighing again and finishing the salad. "But sometimes I'm just barely getting by, even with Blaine giving me half the money he makes."

"Really?" Kurt asks again, looking back at Blaine, who meets his eyes and smiles.

"I tell him not to, but yeah," Mimi admits. "And it's like, if one of us should be taking care of the other it should be me taking care of him, you know?"

"I think we all need help sometimes," Kurt replies.

They're quiet for a minute. Then Kurt remembers something.

"You know," he says slowly. "I have a whole inheritance that's been sitting in a bank for years, and—"

"No," Mimi says quickly. "No, I can't take that."

"I don't want it," Kurt argues. "I tried to give it away when I got it, but nobody would take it, and if you need help—"

"I can't," Mimi says firmly. "Kurt, your dad wouldn't want you to just give his money away."

"He would have wanted it to help people. People I cared about," Kurt says. Mimi bites her lip but shakes her head.

"He'd want you to _do _something with it. Something real. Something important to you."

"You guys are important to me," Kurt says, even as he accepts that he's lost.

"You know what I mean," Mimi replies, smiling softly at him. "But thank you. And you do help us. Just by being here."

Kurt looks over to where Blaine is happily helping Frankie build houses on his properties and smiles.

* * *

One morning a few weeks later, Kurt and Blaine wake up and go downstairs together (Luckily, the boys have yet to realize that the reason they always arrive together is that Blaine sleeps at Kurt's apartment half the time, because nobody is ready to have that conversation.). Blaine leaves with the boys, leaving Kurt to wait for Mimi to be ready to go to work together.

"Just one second," Mimi promises as she puts in her earrings.

"Mimi," Kurt says.

"Yeah?" Mimi asks, the words slightly distorted as she puts on lipstick.

"I've been thinking," Kurt says slowly. "For a while."

"What's wrong?" Mimi asks, looking concerned as she sits down next to Kurt on the couch.

Kurt takes a deep breath. "I have an idea."

* * *

Kurt and Mimi stare down at the sheet of paper, each clutching a pen.

"This just might be turn out to be the stupidest decision ever," Kurt says slowly, reading over the paper even though he's pretty much memorized it by now. Mimi shrugs.

"Stupid decisions usually end badly," she admits, and then wisely adds, "But they almost always have an upside too."

Kurt nods. "You go first," he says.

Mimi sucks in a breath and then, in one quick motion, signs her name on the dotted line. "Now you," she orders, and Kurt does the same before he can think too hard about it.

They both stare at it for a moment, and then Mimi pulls Kurt into a hug.

"Look, I've made my share of mistakes," she says. "But this isn't one of them. I can feel it." And Kurt usually doesn't believe in that stuff but he swears he can feel it too.

* * *

Blaine does the painting and tiling for them because somehow he knows how to do that, and there's always the upside of seeing him get all sweaty from working so hard. He even barely gets annoyed when Kurt and Mimi decide at the last second that they really should have gone with the light pink instead of the blue, and Blaine has to paint the whole room over again.

Kurt finds this perfect table and chairs set at a secondhand shop, and they're still in awesome condition and a total steal. They set them up by the window and put a couch and a coffee table in the corner, get a speaker system and an 'Open' sign, and eventually they're ready.

Well, the building is ready. Kurt and Mimi have to stay up all night making their first batches of cookies, cupcakes, and lemon tarts to sell when they do open.

They've spent the past weeks combining their recipes and secrets to make the best of each different food, making Blaine, Danny, Jack, and Frankie taste-test everything and rate it all on scales of one to ten, and then pick which recipe is better out of two, and then list their all-time favorites. Kurt shares with Mimi his mother's ultra-secret peanut butter cookie recipe, which he has never shared with anyone but this is _their _bakery and they're in this together, so he knows that he has to and Mimi deserves it, anyway.

* * *

Kurt calls one of the numbers still left in his phone from years ago, and then another. Both are disconnected. So he tries the White Pages and Information and he finally tracks one of them down, hoping that he'll only need the one to get to both of them.

He plucks up the courage to call the number two days after he finds it. He's standing up on the roof so he can actually have service, and it's kind of loud but he can hear the ringing. He's suddenly terrified and is just about to hang up when the phone is answered.

"Hello?"

Kurt takes a deep breath. "Hi."

* * *

They come in during that lull in business between lunch hour and after work hours, and Mimi's not there at the moment because Jack got sent to the principal's office again and she had to go in for a parent-teacher conference. Blaine is there, though, keeping him company, sitting on the couch and playing his guitar absentmindedly along with the music on the speaker, sometimes singing along without even seeming to realize it.

Kurt's just leaning on the counter, watching him, when the door chimes. Both Kurt and Blaine look up, but Kurt's the one that stops and stares at them, not sure if he should be smiling or crying or what.

Rachel's sure—she's already doing both as she runs forward and awkwardly hugs Kurt over the counter.

"Hey, Rach," Kurt says, wiping at his eyes because now he's kind of crying too. "Hi, Finn."

Finn hugs Kurt too, and it's a little less awkward because he's taller and can lean over the counter better but a little more awkward because Finn really is the one person that he never should have let get away.

"Hey, man," Finn says.

Kurt nods and says that nobody's coming in anytime soon so he'll get some food and coffee and come around so they can all talk. And when Kurt comes out from behind the counter and Rachel goes to hug him again, he notices the way she's carrying herself and her hand placed on a bump on her stomach that is barely noticeable because of her winter coat.

And then he really starts crying, and Blaine jumps up and leads him to the couch, kissing him on the forehead and telling him that he'll get the coffee.

Kurt knows he should be introducing Blaine but he can't really talk as Rachel sits down next to him and puts her arm around him.

"It's okay," she says soothingly. Kurt looks up at her, and reaches out hesitantly to touch the bump. Rachel lets go of him for a second to unbutton her coat and the sweater underneath, and the bump becomes much more obvious under just the t-shirt. "She's starting to kick sometimes, you know."

Kurt bites his lip and places his hand on the bump, holding his breath.

He jumps when he feels the kick against his hand, a smile breaking out across his face.

He looks up again as Blaine sits down on his other side, giving Finn and Rachel a cup of coffee each and a plate of Kurt's peanut butter cookies on the table. Kurt sniffs, wipes at his eyes, and says, "Blaine, this is my…" he trails off, because he's not sure if he's still allowed to call Finn his brother.

"I'm his brother Finn," Finn finishes for him, holding out a hand to Blaine. "And this is my wife, Rachel."

"Yeah," Kurt agrees. "And this is my boyfriend. Blaine."

Blaine shakes hands with Finn and Rachel, smiling and nodding and telling them congratulations.

Blaine puts an arm around Kurt, who relaxes back into him with a grateful smile, and they talk.

They talk for hours.

* * *

**One Year Later**

"Jack," Jack says slowly to the baby in his arms.

"Guh," replies the baby.

"Jack," Jack says more firmly.

"Gah," the baby says, her eyes wide.

"What are you doing now?" Kurt asks, looking over from the other end of the sofa where he's been talking to Santana.

"I want Abby's first word to be Jack," Jack explains. "So I'm teaching it to her."

He looks meaningfully down at Abigail. "Jack," he says.

"Stop trying to brainwash Abby," Blaine calls from where he's standing and talking to Finn. "Besides, she's not going to talk for a while."

"And she's Rachel's daughter," Kurt adds. "She's probably going to be singing before she starts talking."

"Jack?" Jack tries one more time.

"Goo!" Abigail says enthusiastically.

"Fine," Jack says, pouting and handing Abigail to Kurt. "We'll work on it later."

"I'm sure you will," Kurt replies, shaking his head and bouncing Abigail in his arms.

"So, Porcelain," Santana says. "Britt and I were thinking that for your bachelor party, we could get a male _and _a female stripper, so everyone's happy."

"No strippers," Kurt says firmly. "And don't talk like that in front of the baby."

"Does that mean Blaine doesn't get strippers?" Artie asks, rolling up behind Santana with an extremely disappointed expression. "Because we were going to get both too, and—"

"Nobody gets strippers," Kurt says rolling his eyes. "Come on, Abby, lets go talk to daddy about baby-appropriate things."

He looks up and sees that Finn is hugging a very surprised-looking Blaine and chuckles, standing up and walking over to them with the baby.

"You're not trying to steal my fiancée, are you?" he asks Finn with an arched eyebrow. "By the way, Blaine, Puck's hitting on your sister."

"What?" Blaine asks, looking alarmed as he looks over to where Puck and Mimi are sitting together in a corner. "No he's not, she's like ten years older than him."

"In high school, he slept with a teacher," Kurt informs him. "Are you really willing to take that risk?"

Blaine thinks for a minute, then shakes his head and heads over to join Puck and Mimi.

"So what was all that about?" Kurt asks Finn, carefully extracting Abigail's hand from where it's tangled into his hair. "No, Abby, we don't touch the hair. Ever."

"Nothing," Finn says with a smile. "Just saying thank you for something."

Kurt nods, accepting this answer, and looks around the room at all of his friends, all the people he thought he'd lost forever and the ones he never thought he'd be luck enough to meet. He looks at Sam and Mercedes and Rachel and Santana and all the people he loves.

He imagines a future of growing older with all of them at his side, with the kids who drive him crazy and the people his age that drive him crazier. With Blaine, and maybe their kids someday.

And he's happy. He's happier than he ever thought he could be.

* * *

**I hope you liked the story, because I worked really hard on it and it was pretty emotional to write, but in any case, thank you so much for reading. :-)**


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